The Living Soul

Even evolutionary science has things to say in support of man as a living soul.

A few years ago I was in Davis-Kidd bookstore in Jackson, TN, just enjoying the presence of so many books. As was my occasional habit, I was browsing the science section, flipping through books.

That particular day I opened a science book to somewhere near its middle, and I read one of the most profound statements I've ever found:

Some time around 35,000 years ago there was a sudden and unexplainable leap in the creativity of man.

Now this doesn't fit the time frame of the Bible, but then the Bible doesn't claim to meet time frames. Matthew, for example, gives 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the captivity in Babylon, and 14 from the captivity to Christ. A simple walk through the Old Testament will show you that Matthew skipped some generations, probably on purpose.

So, ignoring the time frame, here was a science book giving a tribute—unknowingly—to the book of Genesis!

Man as a Living Soul

Genesis 2:7 says, "The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

I've learned since I've looked at that book several years ago that this "sudden and unexplainable leap in the creativity of man" is known and accepted by science. In a BBC DVD on evolution, a scientist picked up two human skulls and said (paraphrased from memory):

These two skulls are exactly the same except that one is 60,000 years old and one is 40,000 years old. They're the same species, and they have the same anatomy. Nonetheless, there is a vast difference between the two. This one [he held up the 60,000-year-old skull] lived like an animal; this one [he held up the other] buried its dead and performed ceremonies. We don't know why they're different.

Those of us who read the Bible know.

God had breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life.

And he had become a living soul.

C.S. Lewis wrote:

For long centuries, God perfected the animal form which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself. … The creature may have existed in this stage for ages before it became man: it may have even been clever enough to make things which a clever archaeologist would accept as proof of its humanity. But it was only an animal because all its physical and psychical processes where directed to purely material and natural ends. Then in fullness of time, God caused to descend upon this organism, both on its psychology and physiology, a new kind of consciousness … which knew God. (The Problem of Pain, emphasis mine)

Human Evolution and the Living Soul

One of the biggest problems Christians have with the insurmountable evidence for the evolution of man is that we believe we're different from animals. Jesus died for humans, and specifically for human souls, not for horses, dogs, or beetles; though all of these have brains.